Sorting Grouped Items

Question

Hi,

So I'm running into this issue. I understand the grouped items and its a super nice feature. But when I add a new group of items and then sort it into my list, my grouped items do not move with my to level, instead, its only row 22-26 for example and isn't driven off the information that is grouped.

Maybe pictures will help get my point across. Here in my 1st picture is a quick example of what I'm trying to do. I have everything itemized by date, then description, and so on. You can see it. I have expenses grouped under my credit card payments so I can collapse the credit card payment item to not see the expenses.

At the bottom I have a loan payment I'd like to sort in, I also would like my Credit Card Payment on row 22 to be sorted under the paycheck on row 27. Generally, I'm budgeting my whole year out, so when I add something like a loan mid year that will have a monthly expense, I want to add the expense and the bottom and sort it in. My sorting method is by date, then by expense high to low to always put my paycheck on top.

Here is what happens when I sort by date, then by credit/debit, then by expense.

And now my grouping doesn't make any sense.

I've seen this question asked a few times with no answers. I'm hoping my explanation can help us get to a more clear solution.

Answer 1

Your data needs reorganizing.

I’ve just put up 1 EXCEL file for you at:-

https://www.mediafire.com/file/fmi8zrkbwkdggmp/testing_dec_15_2021_1.xlsm/file

Download the file and open it.

Worksheet called:-

Sheet1

 - cells:-

A 16 to E 37 contain your data.

I’ve put a top level sort for you in column B and a sub level sort in column C.

The range:-

A 16 to E 37

 - has been set up as a Table:-

Overview of EXCEL tables - EXCEL for Microsoft 365

Cells:-

A 16 to E 16

 - I’ve added a Filter to:-

Data tab

Sort & Filter group

Click:-

Filter

EXAMPLE

To inspect your Credit Card Payment category click in cell B 16 and place a tick in 1 box only being that called:-

Credit Card Payment

You can see a total in cell D 38

If you then want to see just any of the sub Expense levels just click in cell C 16 and click on the item(s) you want.

That’s it!

Answer 2

So. I like the way this looks but its not achieving my goal. I'm only wanting to show me making 1 credit card payment with each paycheck, and i want to be able to collapse the information under that showing my expenses I've made on the credit card, but i don't want it looking like I'm paying my credit card with ever single purchase. My actual document is 300 lines deep before expenses. probably be in the 1000s by the end of the year. So I want to be able to hide some of the fluff, but I want to be able to track it.

but lets say sometime in the year I want to move the credit card payment date, I want the expenses to move with it. As currently set up, if I sort by date my entire table is going to become disorganized.

So I made a small modification to the sheet to try and better show what I'm trying to accomplish. Here is the file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikmvoqiuyfjp014/testing\_dec\_15\_2021\_1.xlsm?dl=0

See in the screenshot below

This is the Order in which I'd like my table to be sorted. By date, if they have multiple expenses on the same date then I want it to be ordered by which expense is the largest, because I always want money going into the account to be on top. And then hopefully I can get my credit card expenses to stay grouped with my credit card payment, and then under the credit card be sorted by date and then value small to high.

Thank you for the help.